1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the structure of gripped parts disposed in a recording tape cartridge comprising a case within which is housed a single reel wound with magnetic tape mainly used as a recording and playback medium for computers and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recording tape cartridges (e.g., magnetic tape cartridges) comprising a case within which is housed a single reel wound with magnetic tape mainly used as a recording and playback medium for computers and the like have conventionally been known. A leader member, such as a leader pin, a leader tape, or a leader block, is disposed at a leading end or free end of the magnetic tape. A pull-out mechanism disposed at a drive device pulls out the leader member through an opening in the recording tape cartridge and winds the magnetic tape fixed to the leader member around a take-up reel of the drive device.
A reel gear is annularly disposed in a bottom surface center of the reel, which is exposed through an open hole that penetrates a bottom surface of the recording tape cartridge. The reel is rotatingly driven by a drive gear disposed at a rotating shaft of the drive device meshing with the reel gear. Data is recorded on the magnetic tape, and data recorded on the magnetic tape is played back, by synchronously rotating the reel of the recording tape cartridge and the take-up reel of the drive device.
Recording tape cartridges of this structure are ordinarily housed in a storage called a library 70, as shown in FIG. 6. A desired recording tape cartridge 11 is automatically taken out by a gripping device, such as a robotic hand 60, conveyed to one of several drive devices 80, and loaded therein, where data is recorded and played back.
Namely, the robotic hand 60 is moveable vertically and horizontally along guide rails 66 and 68, and can be disposed to face each housing chamber 72 of the library 70 and loading ports 82 of the drive devices 80. Therefore, when the desired recording tape cartridge 11 is to be taken out from among many recording tape cartridges, the robotic hand 60 is first moved along the guide rails 66 and 68 to a position facing the desired recording tape cartridge 11.
As shown in FIG. 5, the robotic hand 60 is moved horizontally forward, claws 62 at a leading end of the robotic hand 60 are inserted into engagement portions or recesses 47 disposed at both side walls, which are substantially parallel to the direction of movement, of the recording tape cartridge 11, and a bottom surface on a rear wall side is supported at a planar support 64. Thus, the recording tape cartridge 11 is gripped by the robotic hand 60. Thereafter, the recording tape cartridge 11 is taken out from the housing chamber 72 of the library 70 by the robotic hand 60 moving horizontally rearward, and conveyed to the desired drive device 80. The recording tape cartridge 11 is loaded into the drive device 80 after it has been moved to a position facing the loading port 82 of the drive device 80.
In this manner, the recording tape cartridges are housed in the respective housing chambers 72 of the library 70, and loaded into the drive devices 80 by the robotic hand 60. However, the size of the outer shape, i.e., the length, width, and height of the recording tape cartridges differ per type of leader member, and when the library 70 is disposed for each different sized recording tape cartridge (i.e., for recording tape cartridges having different leader members), problems arise in terms of space and cost.
In a case where many different sized recording tape cartridges are housed in one library device 70 and the distance between the claws of the robotic hand cannot be adjusted, errors occur, such as the robotic hand being unable to sufficiently grip and dropping the recording tape cartridge, and sometimes the recording tape cartridge itself sustains damage. Even in an instance where the distance between the claws can be adjusted, it becomes necessary to adjust that distance between the claws per different sized recording tape cartridge. Therefore, there is a loss in labor time in conveying the recording tape cartridge from the library 70 to the drive device 80 and loading it therein.